'The Voice' recap: Battles move along briskly

Amy Reiter

"Tonight, 12 more artists go into battle," Carson Daly promised Tuesday at the outset of "The Voice's" second night of Season 5 battle rounds. It made for an action-packed hourlong episode, featuring three full head-to-head battles and three that had been crisply edited for our quick-viewing pleasure.

Christina Aguilera paired up two sons of preachers – Jacob Poole, who'd turned only one chair in the blind auditions, and Matthew Schuler, who'd turned all four – on "My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark (Light 'Em Up)," by Fall Out Boy, citing their shared "rock inspirations." Schuler may have been the favorite going in, but Poole matched his intensity. The other coaches were impressed. Green called it one of the best battles he'd ever seen. Adam Levine called it a "musical ... whooping," meaning both singers had together whooped the audience. Blake Shelton quipped that the intensity had him worried that someone's nose might start bleeding, and said it was Poole who'd impressed him the most. Still, Aguilera gave the match to Schuler, and no one moved to steal Poole. Shelton said he would have snapped Poole up, had he not already used both his steals on Night One of the battles.

Green pitted glam-rocker Kat Robichaud against gospel singer R. Anthony, hoping each would find a personal connection to Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." Anthony had solid vocals, but he was right to worry that Robichaud's moves – at one point she took a fascinating little stutter-step across stage -- would make him look like a bump on a log. Aguilera called Robichaud a "tiger." Green called her a "dynamo" and, admiringly, a "natural disaster" and gave her the round, natch. R. Anthony went home unstolen.

Then after a flurry of shorties in which we saw Cole Vosbury best Lupe Carroll to move forward with Team CeeLo, Team Blake's E.G. Daily survive by trumping Sam Cerniglia and Ashley DuBose prevail against Justin Blake on Team Adam, we got the final full battle of the evening – and the one with the most surprising outcome.

Hotel worker Monika Leigh, the one Blake Shelton nabbed in the blinds by saying he wanted to build his team around her, squared off against single dad Ray Boudreaux on Grand Funk Railroad's "Some Kind of Wonderful." The coaches were full of compliments for both singers, but Shelton picked Boudreaux, perhaps because, he said, getting Leigh to sing something the same way twice was like "herding cats." But Leigh's disappointment was short-lived. Green swooped in with a steal. "You and me, we can do it," he told her. We shall see.